This invention is directed to an improved ice resurfacing machine blade holder for holding disposable blades.
Ice resurfacing machines were developed several decades ago for refurbishing the surface of ice on a skating rink, hockey rink, or other recreational ice surfaces. A modern ice resurfacing machine has the capacity to plane a rough surface of ice with a blade, sweep or vacuum up the ice-shavings planed off the surface of the ice, wash and squeegee the surface, and finally, coat the surface with a light film of water which immediately freezes to form a new ice surface. Basically, the ice resurfacing machine is a self-propelled vehicle having a dump tank for disposing of ice and snow lifted from the surface of the ice, a water tank for supplying fresh water for the surface of the ice, and a sled. Mounted on the sled are the necessary hardware items for shaving the ice, removing the shavings, washing and squeegeeing the ice, and then rewetting the ice.
It is important to condition the ice surface for several reasons. The ice is used for skating in one form or the other. Iceskates have sharp edges which cut into and gouge the surface of the ice caused by the wear and tear of the iceskates moving over the ice. Further, in order to control the energy costs in maintaining an artificial ice surface, it is necessary to maintain proper thickness of the ice.
Since ice is a hard solid, it is abrasive to the blades utilized to shave and plane the ice and it wears down the blade's cutting edge. A dull blade will not properly shave the ice. Use of a dull blade can result in a rough and wavy surface and improper pickup of snow off the ice surface.
Since most ice rinkgs and other ice surfaces are quite large, the ice resurfacing machine must be of a sufficient size so as to be able to traverse over the totality of the surface of the ice in a reasonable amount of time. This requires a certain width to the ice machine such that the width of the resurfacing path of the ice resurfacing machine is sufficiently large in order to resurface the ice in a minimum number of traverses back and forth across the ice surface. Generally, an ice surfacing machine will resurface a width of ice approximately five to seven foot wide. In resurfacing this path width of ice, it is necessary for the ice resurfacing blade to be maintained absolutely fixed across its total width such that the ice will be resurfaced in a smooth plane across the total width of the path of the ice resurfacing machine.
Initially, a single large heavy blade was utilized on ice resurfacing machines. As in explained in the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 3,917,350, when these older monolithic blades were utilized, generally four blades were needed. Two to be sent out to be resharpened, one on the machine for use, and one for replacing as soon as the one of the machine became dull. These older blades weighted in excess of fifty pounds. This large, heavy blade had to be attached and detached from the bottom of the sled portion of the ice resurfacing machine. Generally, the sled portion of the ice resurfacing machine can be raised approximately ten to twelve inches off the surface of the ice. While this allows for a certain amount of working room, it certainly is not a convenient work space. Because the blades were very heavy and had a very sharp edge thereon, and because of the limited space in which to work, for the older monolithic blades at least two men were required for the detaching and remounting of the blade on the ice resurfacing machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,917,350 describes the use of disposable light weight blades which are held in a fixture which is attached to the sled portion of an ice resurfacing machine. While several embodiments of holding fixtures are described in this patent, problems have been encountered with each of these.
The disposable blades for use on ice resurfacing machines are lightweight elongated flexible stainless steel blades having a sharpened edge thereon. Since it is absolutely mandatory that these be held in a rigid position beneath the sled of the ice resurfacing machine, mounting them can be equated to the problem of fixing an extremely sharp blade in a six foot wide vice which must be lightweight, perfectly rigid, but at the same time inexpensive and easy to manipulate. As is evident, this is a very exacting and difficult set of criteria to meet.
Problems have been experienced in utilizing prior known blade holders. These problems include the difficulty and consequently the expense in machining the components to the shape necessary for functioning of these holders. Aside from the manufacturing difficulties and cost, in acutal use, the prior blade holders for disposable blades are, on occasion, subject to warpage and misalignment of their component parts. Furthermore, in one commercial embodiment of these blade holders, the same set of bolts are utilized to both attach the blade holder to the ice resurfacing machine and to grip or attach the blade in the blade holder. Thus, in changing the blade, the personnel not only has to content with inserting a very sharp blade into the blade holder, but also have to contend with portions of the blade holder moving with respect to the machine, which complicated the insertion and removal of the blades.
In view of the above, it is evident that there exists a need for new and improved blade holders for use in holding disposable blades on ice resurfacing machines. It is, therefore, a broad object of this invention to provide such new and improved blade holders for ice resurfacing machines. It is a further object of this invention to provide a blade holder for an ice resurfacing machine which allows for quick and convenient replacement of blades without requiring extended expenditure of expensive labor time in doing so. It is a further object to provide a blade holder for an ice resurfacing machine which because of the engineering principles inherent therein is capable of being economically manufactured but is also capable of a long and useful lifetime.
These and other objects as will become evident from the remainder of this specification are achieved in an ice resurfacing machine blade holder which comprises: a blade attachment member sized and shaped so as to have an elongated transverse dimension sufficient to extend across the width of the resurfacing path of the ice resurfacing machine. The blade attachment member has a forward edge and a bottom surface and a top surface all of which extend across the elongated transverse dimension of the attachment member. The blade attachment member includes an inverted "V" shaped groove extending into the bottom surface across the elongated transverse dimension of the attachment member along the forward edge of the attachment member. The "V" shaped groove has an essentially flat planar blade abutting surface and an essentially flat planar retaining element abutting surface with the blade abutting surface positioned towards and intersecting the forward edge of the blade attachment member and with the blade abutting surface located between the forward edge and the retaining element abutting surface. The blade abutting surface and the retaining element abutting surface intersecting each other at an obtuse angle. It further includes a retaining element which is essentially triangular in shape in cross section and has an elongated transverse dimension essentially equal to the elongated transverse dimension of the attachment member. The retaining element has an essentially flat planar blade engaging wall and an essentially flat planar attachment member engaging wall and a bottom wall each of which intersect the others to form the triangular cross sectional shape. The blade engaging wall and the attachment member engaging wall intersecting each other at an obtuse angle equal to or essentially slightly greater than the angle of intersecting of the engagement member blade abutting surface and retaining element abutting surface. The retaining element is positional on the attachment member with the attachment member engaging wall mating with the retaining element abutting surface and the blade abutting surface and the blade engaging wall being spaced apart from one another in an essentially parallel alignment to form a cavity between the attachment member blade abutting surface and the retaining element blade engaging wall. The essentially parallel alignment of blade abutting surface and the blade engaging surface shape the cavity so as to accept a disposal ice resurfacing blade within the cavity. A locking means is included for retaining the retaining element in the mating position against the attachment member whereby the disposal ice resurfacing blade is capable of being temporarily fixely retained in the cavity.